Single Crystal Metal Films on Silicon: Microscopic Characterization and Applications

Epitaxial silicides grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) present fascinating scientific and practical challenges to the materials scientist. The realization of perfect single-crystal semiconductor/metal/semiconductor heterostructures, which has almost been attained, provides opportunity for the investigation of electron transport across thin metal layers and the possible realization of the metal-base transistor. The physical properties of unique single-crystal interfaces also display unexpected and theoretically stimulating behaviour.